SIME GALLERY - Key Persons
Beatrice currently works as the Interpretation and Programming Officer for Brooklands Museum, with experience in exhibition design and managing project development and delivery. Her previous experience includes working as the Curatorial Administrator for Historic Royal Palaces, where she took an active role in supporting the large curatorial team as well as working at Royal Collection Trust in their Visitor Experience department. Beatrice is looking forward to sharing her knowledge of exhibition development and other heritage experience to help advance the aims of the gallery and the CIO.
Cath is a part time ESOL teacher with experience in teaching adults and children of all ages and abilities, both in the UK and overseas. She originally trained as a painter,retaining a strong interest in the arts.She enjoys helping out with school productions, fundraisers and the school PTA. She is involved in the youth work at Worplesdon Parish churches.
Graham's career has primarily been within the theatre industry. Studying at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art in Stage Management & Technical Theatre, leading on to become a Stage Manager at various UK's theatres, touring and overseas. In 1987, he set up his own scenery construction business producing scenery and designs for many theatres in the West End, overseas, opera, dance, and exhibitions. Following semi-retirement in 2021, he devotes some time to assisting art galleries and museums with display stands, while now involving himself with the Sime Gallery, Worplesdon Parish Churches Youth activities and local events.
Jan is a Parish Councillor who has been connected to the gallery for six years and has been an active volunteer in the gallery for the last three years. She was a pre-school teacher in the hall and is a co-organiser of the workshops for families. Jan manages the marketing and press activity for the Gallery.
John has been a Worplesdon resident for over 30 years. He is a qualified Solicitor and had a career in Industry with 25 years experience operating at Board level for UK and US publicly listed companies. More recently he has been a Trustee of 3 other Charities and is now happy to be involved with The Sime Gallery, his local charity. In his free time John is a keen golfer.
Marilyn is a museum and heritage professional with more than 30 years' experience in the sector. She is Director of The Lightbox, the award-winning museum and gallery in Woking which she managed from feasibility study to opening in 2007. She brings a wealth of expertise particularly in museum planning, income generation, fundraising, volunteer management and governance. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Marjory is a local resident who became interested in the Sime Gallery while being the Minutes Secretary for the Hall. She has worked in a range of charitable and educational institutions.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Retired Clinical Nurse
Mary is a retired clinical nurse. She has been a Trustee of Worplesdon Memorial Hall and Recreation Ground and The Sime Trust for 18 years. She has been responsible for the gallery for the last 10 years, forming a sub-committee of volunteers for the gallery, and being the chief co-ordinator for the Sime exhibition held at the Lightbox in 2017 and wrote the accompanying book. Mary organises the gallery's family workshops and heritage weekends and gives talks on Sidney Sime.
Sidney Herbert Sime (1865-1941) was a talented artist, illustrator and caricaturist.
Born in Manchester, Sime's family was poor, and at a young age he was sent to work in the Yorkshire mining pits where conditions were bleak. Later he became a successful signwriter, enabling him to study at the Liverpool School of Art, where he won prizes. Moving to London, his extraordinary imagination was soon noticed by the artist and writer Jerome K Jerome, artist, who was editor of the illustrated magazine ‘The Idler'. He became a prolific illustrator for many magazines, including the Illustrated London News, Pall Mall, Graphic, Tatler, Pick-Me-Up, and Punch, during the late 1890s and early 1900s in particular.
In 1904 - following his marriage in 1898 and a move to Scotland - Sime settled in Crown Cottage, Worplesdon, an old coaching inn with a stable block that he converted into his studio. He was a regular visitor at the New Inn opposite, later sketching caricatures of the local working men and tradesmen who frequented it.
He enjoyed visiting his London Gentlemen's clubs, where he mixed with like-minded members including his musical friends Duncan Tovey and Joseph Holbrooke, the latter with whom he would collaborate on Bogey Beasts, a book of pictures and verses by Sime with music by Holbrooke.
Thomas Seymour is our founding patron . A barrister and the grandson of Sime's aristocratic patron, Lord Howard de Walden, Thomas has been a loyal supporter of the Sime Gallery, as well as having a keen personal interest in the artworks.